The Wolverine Trivia
Trivia about The Wolverine. *Producer Lauren Shuler Donner approached writer Simon Beaufoy to write the script, but Beaufoy did not feel confident enough to commit. *Hugh Jackman is a self-confessed fan of the Chris Claremont-Frank Miller "Wolverine" comic, especially the Japanese saga: "There are so many areas of that Japanese story. I love the idea of this kind of anarchic character, the outsider, being in this world full of honor and tradition and customs; someone who's really anti-all of that, and trying to negotiate his own way. *The idea of the samurai too, and the tradition there - it's really great. In the comic book he gets his ass kicked by a couple of samurai - not even mutants." *Darren Aronofsky was originally set to direct and worked on the project for six months before departing, citing the long overseas shoot would prevent him from seeing his family (he had just separated from Rachel Weisz, the mother of his child). *During his time attached to the film, he rewrote the screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and it is speculated that the real reason for his departure was the studio's unwillingness to approve his draft - which aimed for a hard 'R' rating due to heavy sexual content and brutal violence. *This is the first X-Men film to have an extended version on its Blu-Ray release. *This will be the first time Wolverine is in a movie without X-Men attached to the title. *This is Jackman's sixth portrayal of Logan/Wolverine. *Jessica Biel was offered the role of Viper but a deal couldn't be reached and she dropped out. *Togo Igawa was considered for the role of Shingen. *In the film Yukio and Viper are mutants whereas Harada is not; it's the other way around in the comics. *Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in directing, being a fan of the Japanese saga in the "Wolverine" comics. He met with James Gianopulos and Hugh Jackman about directing the film, but ultimately decided he did not wish to spend 2-3 years of his life working on the film. *Mariko recounts nightmares of a kuzuri. "Kuzuri" is Japanese for "wolverine." *In May 2011 Fox was down to a short list of eight candidates to direct: Jose Padilha, Doug Liman, Antoine Fuqua, Mark Romanek, Justin Lin, Gavin O'Connor, Gary Shore and James Mangold. Out of that list Mangold was chosen. Liman would later direct Gambit. *According to James Mangold, this film is a sequel to "X-Men: The Last Stand" ("Jean Grey is gone and most of the X-Men are disbanded, so there's a tremendous sense of isolation for Wolverine") but with extended flashbacks. *To prepare for the role, Hugh Jackman contacted Dwayne Johnson for advice on bulking up for the movie. Johnson suggested Jackman could gain a pound a week over six months (24 weeks) by eating 6,000 calories a day of "an awful lot of chicken, steak and brown rice." *According to James Mangold, the film had started out as a prequel to "X-Men", but later he decided to make it a sequel to "X-Men: The Last Stand": "I wanted to tell the story without the burden of handing it off to a film that already exists and having to conform to it. The ideas of immortality reign very heavily in this story, and the burden of immortality weighs heavily on Logan. For me that's such an interesting part of Logan's character that it is nearly impossible to explore in a prequel." *Hugh Jackman confirmed on having discussions with director James Mangold about test screening a PG-13 rated cut and an R rated cut, but did not comment on filming sequences for them. Although the film was confirmed to be rated PG-13 via a tweet from James Mangold saying "it's PG-13, but don't worry, it ain't Bambi." An unrated/extended cut is confirmed exclusively for the 3D BLU-RAY release. *Director of photography Amir Mokri was replaced during filming by second unit director of photography Ross Emery. The previous film Mokri shot, "Man of Steel", was also a superhero film. *Doug Walker aka The Nostalgia Critic had a cameo in the extra scene after the end credits and can be standing in the background behind Wolverine. When Wolverine turns around and sees that everybody at the airport has frozen in time. *According to James Mangold, this film is influenced by the Japanese samurai films "13 Assassins" and Hiroshi Inagaki's Musashi Miyamoto Samurai trilogy; the Westerns "Shane" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales"; the crime films "The French Connection" and "Chinatown"; and the dramas "Black Narcissus", "Floating Weeds", "Chungking Express" and "Happy Together". *Hugh Jackman said that with this film, he finally achieved the physique that he always envisioned in his mind that Wolverine should have. He said that for some reason, on each of his 5 prior takes at the character, he felt that he never had enough time to get in shape; for this film he finally had enough time, and got his body exactly the way he wanted it to look. Co-star Will Yun Lee also said that it was Jackman's best physique for the role of Wolverine. *According to Hugh Jackman, Wolverine being surrounded by death while being unable to die due to his healing factor is a major theme in the film: "He realizes everyone he loves dies, and his whole life is full of pain. So it's better that he just escapes. He can't die really. He just wants to get away from everything." *The first X-Men film, and in fact the first Fox/Marvel film, to be released in 3D and IMAX. *Hugh Jackman said that for his shirtless scenes in the film, he wanted to look "as ripped and cut as possible". So he adopted a dehydration diet (used in bodybuilding) where he did not consume any liquid for 36 hours before filming his shirtless shots. He said it made him feel "headachy" and faint but he was pleased with the results as dehydrating tightens everything up and gave him the exaggerated muscle definition and vascularity that he wanted to show in his shirtless scenes. *When Wolverine is in the snowy forest, there is a bottle of whiskey called "Stanley's Whiskey" this is probably a reference to Marvel creator Stan Lee, who does not his usual cameo appearance. *Rila Fukushima and Tao Okamoto's first feature length motion pictures. *Since he speaks fluent Italian, Hal Yamanouchi dubbed himself for the Italian version. *The film was scheduled to be released in Japan in mid-September, more than a month after its worldwide release. This was to avoid insensitive screenings during the early August anniversaries of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the film itself opens with the Nagasaki bombing). *Jessica Henwick and Katie Leung were considered for the role of Yukio. *Young Yashida gives Wolverine a samurai sword with 6 Kanji letters engraved on it. These kanji read: "Never Died, Never Aged, Never Destroyed". This is apt for Wolverine. *The receptionist/owner of the hotel pets her cat behind the front desk. In Japanese culture, it is called a 'maneki-neko' (beckoning cat), a good luck charm used for all who enter an establishment. *In the comics Yukio is known for short hair and black leather outfits. In this film Yukio has long red hair and wears clothes influenced mostly by Generation X and anime. *Mariko recounts nightmares of a kuruzi. "Kuruzi" is Japanese for "wolverine." *For the bullet train fight, the actors and stunt performers filmed on wires above a set piece surrounded by a green-screen. The moving background came from filming on an elevated freeway in Tokyo. The VFXperts got the background from filming with a rig and eight Red Epic cameras angled at 45 degrees. Filming at 60 kmh, the footage was then sped up to 300 kmh. *The Silver Samurai suit was based on a model that had been 3D-printed and chrome-painted using electrolysis. *Almost all the promotional materials for the film and the posters featured lead star Hugh Jackman shirtless on them, in contrast to the film where he appears shirtless only in a handful of scenes. This was done in order to emphasize the superior shape he got into for the film, his best-ever physique as he and director James Mangold repeatedly said. *Famke Janssen filmed her Jean Gray cameo in three days. Hugh Jackman said, "There's no doubt that the most important relationship in his life is - we've seen through the movies - is his relationship with Jean Grey. Yes, we saw her die at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand, but in this movie, she has a presence which I think is vital to the movie, particularly for him confronting the most difficult thing within himself." *The cameo appearance of Magneto and Professor X in this film is an echo of Wolverine's uncredited cameo in X-Men: First Class. *The Silver Samurai in this film is a combination of Kenuchio Harada (a skilled samurai with a tachyon blade) and Shin Harada (who possessed a technologically-advanced suit of armor). Harada himself is a separate character in the film. *Ian McKellen's cameo as Magneto marks the first time in 10 years that he has played both Magneto and Gandalf in the same year. "X2" was released in the same year as "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", while this film was released in the same year as "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug". Category:X-Men Category:Trivia